The Long Hillside: A Christmas Hare-Hunt in Old Virginia: 1908

A boy's-eye chronicle of a Christmas Day hare-hunt in Virginia during the 1860s, rendered with the hazy perfection of fondest memory. Page recalls the old fields and branch-bottoms teeming with hares, the particular domain of boys who considered them their rightful property, 'scorned by the gentlemen' who hunted higher game. The narrative follows the crack pointers Bruno and Don, their brown eyes and satiny ears, as the hunt unfolds in frantic chases across frozen ground. But childhood joy carries consequences: in the chaos of the chase, the boys allow the prized dogs to pursue beyond the hares, and mischief demands a reckoning. What elevates this slight tale is its bittersweet awareness that the best days cannot last, and its insistence that forgiveness, not shame, is the true gift of the season.